


Birthdays and Jealousy

by Fallen_Ark_Angel



Series: Remember Me [41]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 15:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17409518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallen_Ark_Angel/pseuds/Fallen_Ark_Angel
Summary: If there's one thing Erza's good at, it's deciding she's good at everything. Including understanding matters of the heart. Spoiler alert; she's not.





	Birthdays and Jealousy

"It's not every day, you know, boy, that your son turns such an age," Gajeel bellowed to his son as they walked down the road together, a grinning Pantherlily fluttering along beside. "Eleven. Eleven! I was a man by that age, you know."

"I know, Dad," Locke agreed because it was easier than arguing.

"But you, you still got some way to go, but you sure are getting closer, you know? To being a man?"

Making a face, the boy said simply, "You sound like Elf."

Which, of course, got him a hard crack to the top of the head. One strong enough that, griping, Locke reached up to rub at the tangled mass of course black hair he had, staring at his father in shock.

"Don't ever say somethin' like that," Gajeel grumbled simply as Lily tasked from above. "And you sound way too familiar with that stupid family either. It's why I don't like you hanging around that Dreyar girl."

"Haven's my friend."

"Friend? Friend? Who needs friends? You think that I had friends? When I was your age? Huh?"

Locke was silent for a moment before replying, "No, I don't think you have friends. Not if you hit them in the head all the time."

"Why you little..." And Gajeel trailed off as the glare that was going towards his son slowly turned softer and then they were both grinning at one another and snickering and that time, when his father popped him one good on the noggin, it felt great.

Lily, still flying above, grinned as well as he asked, "What is it that you wish for your birthday then, Locke? A new bike, perhaps? Some sort of toy? There must be something."

"Well, uh, I dunno," he said slowly as he shrugged a bit. "I guess I haven't thought about it much."

"That's unheard of," the Exceed insisted. "When it is close to any of their birthdays, your friends at the hall cannot keep quiet about what it is they wish for their families to purchase them. Just last year, it was all you could talk about, those nice shoes you wanted. What-"

"Don't question it, cat," Gajeel complained with a glare. And that time, instead of patting the boy on the head, his hand found it's way onto Locke's back with such force he nearly knocked him over. "He's just becoming a man, is all."

"Being a man means you must be impossible to buy a gift for?"

"Being a man means that you have no need for such childish things." Gajeel even snickered a bit. "Ain't that right, Locke?"

"I...I guess not."

"That's right you guess not." With a nod of his head, the slayer told his son then, "A year older though, a year learning and suffering, should be met with some sort of gift worthy of such an accomplishment."

"You think so?"

"Of course. Maybe I'll take you on a super hard job, huh? Something your stupid Dreyar friend will never be able to go on. Would you like that?"

"I'd like it a lot."

"Great!" That time, the slap on the back was way too hard and did cause Locke to fall. When Lily paused to look on with concern though and Gajeel stood there, waiting, Locke only lifted his head to grin at the pair and get right back to his feet.

It wasn't even his birthday yet and it was already shaping up pretty well.

Across town, however, a similar problem was arising as said Dreyar girl who would no doubt be super jealous over the job he was going to get to go on, was actually very busy trying to pick out a gift for the boy as well.

"That's a dumb idea, Marin."

Err, well, she was being mean to her sister, but with the intention of eventually weeding through all of her terrible suggestions and eventually arriving at the right one.

"Haven, don't be rude," Evergreen sighed as she led the two sisters through the market place. "Marin's trying to help you."

She'd made the horrible mistake, Ever had, of mentioning around the two girls that she was going shopping that day and, well, Haven seized the chance. Marin came along too because she liked her aunt so much, but mostly because her only real friend at the guildhall, Kai, hadn't shown up that day and she'd been pretty bored without him.

Plus, she needed to get Locke a gift too! Her mother had given her a few jewels for helping sweep up the guildhall that morning, so she was going to put it to good use. Locke deserved a nice birthday present for being such a nice guy.

Haven maybe sorta felt the same, but probably was only getting him a gift because it then gave her something to lord over him. Or at least that would be her own excuse, if called out on it. Same reason she gave anyone anything, honestly.

"I'm just telling the truth," Haven muttered to the only aunt she truly feared. Evergreen was pretty scary. Even Elf thought so. It didn't help that Haven could tell the woman didn't like her. She might love her, but she certainly didn't like her.

Marin, who she did like, only sniffled a bit from the allergies the changing weather gave her, as she asked, "What would you get Locke? Aunt Ever?"

"Well, he is a dirty, gross little boy," the woman told them both with a bit of a shrug. "And when I was your ages, I had to buy gifts for gross, dirty little boys as well. Well, one. Freed wasn't gross. Or dirty. Bickslow though-"

"What did you buy him though?" Marin insisted as Haven, though she wouldn't admit to it, felt her ears perk up as well.

"Paint, typically," the woman told them with a bit of a shrug. "It's not cheap, you know, when you're also trying to use your income to support yourselves. And he needed it for his little doll bodies. He used to go through so many of them back then because they would constantly bash into things and break. So he'd have to paint new ones."

"That doesn't help much," Marin observed. "I don't think Locke even knows how to paint."

"Neither did your uncle." Then, with a shake of her head, the woman told them as they walked down the road, "Think of the things that Locke likes. That's how you'll find the right gift for him. Personally, I would go with a comb, but I suppose that would be a bit too on the nose."

"A comb goes in your hair."

"I know, Marin, I-"

"Locke doesn't like anything except being a loser," Haven said then with her head held high. Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, "And pretending like he's so smart because he actually reads books. Who reads books? He's so stupid."

"Maybe you should get him a book," Marin offered then with a bit of a bounce. "Haven."

"No. I shouldn't. Because that's dumb and you're dumb."

"Hey-"

"Haven, I'm serious about behaving," Evergreen said with a glare down at the little girl then. "I can send you back to the hall without getting anything at all. You do realize this, yes?"

And she took a big kick at the air before she said it, but still, a grumbled, "Yes," did leave Haven's mouth.

For a few moments, they were all quiet once more. Evergreen even went into a shop, taking Marin with her, and leaving the pouting Haven behind. But that was fine. Haven didn't wanna go look at stupid girlie clothes anyways! She didn't even like Evergreen either! Or her stupid rules!

Ugh.

Off on her own for a bit, Haven decided she needed to double down on this gift giving thing. She was in a foul mood now though and felt liable to just buy stupid Locke a lint roller if she saw one. That's how pissy she was over being reprimanded.

She didn't take correction well.

She learned this from the best after all; her father.

Laxus was actually the one that insisted, the day before, that she and Locke would be all made up by the time that his birthday rolled around (they had, once more, had a pretty big falling out), and that she'd be mad at herself if she didn't at least get him something. While she doubted this very much, what he said was true to a certain extent.

They would be made up by then.

They always were, after all.

It was while she was stomping about the busy bazaar, however, that she found it. Just the best gift ever. She couldn't wait to give it to him, even. Haven rarely felt true excitement over things, not unless they had to do with herself (and even then, her emotional range was rather stinted), but the second she saw it, she knew that it was the best gift for him that anyone could ever buy.

So that's exactly what she spent her hard earned job jewels doing.

Marin, in turn, found a little machine that gave out tiny, keychain sized water guns. She used her few jewels to buy one for her, one for Kai, and one for Locke.

Though the day hadn't gone exactly how either planned, if you were to ask them how their journey to buy Locke gifts went, they would have claimed perfectly.

They weren't his only guild friends though, of course. Navi, though she might not always feel like it, was one of his closest friends as well and felt the need to buy him something nice. He'd done the same for her, her previous birthday, and though her family was struggling a bit financially, this felt rather lost on Navi for the most part. She knew her father was gone a lot more on jobs and her mother as well, when he wasn't, but for the most part, that just gave her a chance to be gone on them too, as they didn't mind bring her on lower level stuff.

And they always let her keep a small portion of things to spend on whatever she wanted.

That morning, as she awoke to Happy drooling on her pillow, she only shoved the feline away before bounding out of bed to get on with some present finding.

She was a bit shocked to find her parents already up, before the sunrise even, in the kitchen. They were sat the table together, going over bills and things. Well, Lucy was going over them while Natsu mostly looked bored, but he did sit up as his daughter came into the room.

"What are you doing up so early?" Lucy asked with a bit of a frown as the girl came over to hug her father. "Navi? Is something wrong? Did Happy-"

"No," she was quick to say as she was turning then to go find something for breakfast. "I have to go out and find Locke a gift."

"So early?"

"After that, I have to go with Haven to-"

"You should come with me," Natsu challenged with a thumb jerked in his direction. "Hap and I are gonna go train. Some heavy stuff. Way better than anything Haven can offer you, I bet."

"Well-"

"You just want her to go to provide you with fire, don't you?" Lucy remarked with a suspicious eye.

"Never denied it. Gives her practice as well. What's wrong with that?"

Sighing, she spoke to her daughter then as she asked, "Well, whatever you decide to do, do you think if I gave you some jewels you could get something for dinner tonight? While you're out getting something for your friend?"

Of course. Which is what she was very busy doing when she ran into none other than Erza Scarlet who was out with her two little charges. Upon seeing and questioning Navi of what she was doing out so early on her own, she immediately began to brag the girl up to the two little boys who didn't seem to be listening.

Not that they ever seemed to be listening.

Kai, the youngest, was very busy trying to get the zipper on his jacket unstuck while Ravan, the elder, only glared so heavily at Navi the whole time that she was more than a bit creeped out by the whole thing. The former was harmless, as he was showing at the moment, but the latter always seemed to have a deep distaste for, well, most everyone, but Navi felt this extended heavily on her when Erza was involved.

Without her? Forget it. Ravan hardly even seemed to realize who she was. His main focus up at the hall seemed to be to torment Haven and, by proxy, Locke, but he didn't really seem to think that Navi was a part of that, so she got left alone a lot.

Erza changed things a bit though.

Before Ravan and his brother came strolling into town, looking to take her life, Erza honestly had no interest in ever being in charge of a child. It wasn't a desire she had. She saw herself more as a fearsome warrior than any sort of motherly type. She did, however, find herself frequently looking after Navi when the girl was young and found it somewhat enjoyable. Because of this, she considered herself and the young girl bonded and, considering the typically well-behaved nature of the girl, even attributed herself to part of her raising. This meant that she saw no problem with bragging up the girl's behavior. She always had. She thought that Navi was the epitome of how great a child could turn out (even when lackluster parenting at home).

Of course she would think that Ravan and Kai should take notice.

And oh, take notice they did.

It was that childish misunderstanding of true feelings that got Ravan all crossed up when it came to the other child. To him, Navi was kind of useless. She didn't like fighting. She didn't offer up much help on jobs. Honestly, she seemed like a pushover who let Haven boss her around. Then there was the fact that a good amount of the time, she didn't even want to hang out with the rest of them (she actually had much better friends in her neighborhood that she far preferred in some regards than the ones she had from Fairy Tail) and that made her even less interesting to him.

He might, in a way, like her more than Haven and Locke. Just because he didn't hate her. But to say that they were in any way friends was too far off the mark to be accurate.

Ravan, for the most part, just didn't think of Navi at all. And she rather liked it that way.

When she found herself around Erza though, the woman that the boy refused to admit, even to himself, that he admired so much and wished deeply would feel the same way about him, things got a bit sticky. The swordswoman view of the girl as the perfect child whereas Ravan was inadequate and useless and needlessly bothersome kind of…

It didn't hurt his feelings.

He refused to let it do so.

But at the same time, at the end of the day, he was still a little boy with feelings and emotions that, fine, he was adept at burying deep, but still had to deal with when that failed through. He'd been with Erza for over a year at that point and a lot of time, it felt like he, his brother, and her had all found a relative peace with one another, but there were others when he felt like an intruder or just didn't belong.

She liked Kai so much.

And she seemed to adore Navi.

But he just felt like an annoyance or bother to her. Which, considering he didn't properly know how to process this, caused him to act out even more. Slam doors, refuse to help clean up around the house, yell at his brother. Anything to get her to yell at him.

Anything to get attention from her.

She wasn't his mother and he knew that and it wasn't right for him to feel like she owed him anything more than all she'd already given him, but sometimes…

Sometimes it was just really hard.

But Erza didn't understand these sorts of things. How could she? She was so literal and serious that, short of Ravan outright telling her what he was feeling, it would only go over her head. She thought that he was disruptive and disagreeable simply because he chose to be out of defiance. Not that he felt the need to be out of some sort of emotional neglect.

To have to hear her then scold him on how he should be more like Navi did little more than make him dislike the other child.

It could hurt Kai's feelings at times as well, but he was rather open about those sorts of things and great about expressing it. So when he was upset with Erza, it typically got resolved. Not Ravan though. He was left to his own devices for self comfort.

And, at the moment, he was thinking about twenty different ways he could bloody Navi's nose as she stood there, rocking on her feet a bit, as she stared up at her parents' friend, listening diligently to the words she said.

"I'm sure Navi is also able to find her way home once more, all on her own, when she is finished shopping, Kai. Something that you too could learn from."

"I'm just tryin' to figure this zipper out! It's so hard."

"Yes, well, Ra- Ravan, where are you going?" Erza turned as she saw the boy tugging his hood over his head and rushing off into the sea of people that always flooded the market place on weekdays. "Ravan!"

Kai glanced after the boy as well, but just as quickly he was looking to Navi and speaking.

"So what are you getting Locke for his birthday?" he asked as, giving up on the zipper, he smiled brightly at the other girl. "I'm thinking about getting him whatever Ravan decides."

"Uh, I don't think Ravan's going to get him anything, Kai."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well-"

"Your brother is impossible," Erza huffed as she turned to look once more down at the other two children. "He is always so moody. I honestly do not know what is wrong with him."

"I dunno," Kai was quick to say before continuing on with what he wanted to get at. "Navi, do you think that Locke would like a nice, fresh fish?'

"Uh...Kai, I have to go."

That, at least, got Erza to nod some at the girl and agree, "You should be on your way. I plan to take leave for a job soon, Navi, so in case we do not see one another again, I look forward to when we do once more."

Navi made a bit of a face, but still bowed her head and whispered, "You too, Erza."

"Bye, Navi!" Kai waved at the girl who disappeared in about the same speed as his brother. Then, tilting his head up to stare at his technical guardian, the boy asked, "You'll leave before Locke's birthday party?"

It was Erza's turn to make a face as, turning, she patted him on the head and led him in the opposite direction. "What difference would it make to me, Kai?"

"Well, I for one sure am happy 'bout it." He went back to toying with his zipper. "There'll probably be cake and ice cream and-"

"What did we say about being less piggish?"

"I'd only eat a little, Erza."

"Hn."

"'sides, I'm gettin' in great fightin' shape, don't you think?" And, giving up on the zipper again, Kai took some shadow punches at the air. "I'll be able to go out on a job in no time."

"Yes, well, for the time being," the woman said with a heavy frown, "you are to stay with Marin while I am away."

"Alright!" That time, the punch he threw was out of pure joy. It was only after thoughts of staying up late (till nine, at least) giggling and talking, had fled his mind that Kai thought about something else. "What about Ravan? Is he gonna go with you? Or-"

"I know little of Ravan, currently," the woman told him simply. "He was fine today, until-"

"Until we saw Navi." Then Kai stopped for a moment and gasped. When Erza didn't play along with his dramatics, he was quick to fall into step with her once more. Still, he said, "Think he was mad about that?"

"About what?"

"That we stopped and talked to Navi."

"Why would that upset him?"

"I dunno."

"He and Navi are friends."

"I guess so."

"Unless..."

"Unless what?"

But Erza was already thinking things in her mind that she didn't want to say aloud, for fear fo ruining them. She was around their ages, after all, when she first developed a crush on another child. It was rather typical, she figured. She knew too that such feeling could often scare children into being rather brazen with one another and could even lead to, perhaps, one running away in fear of said feelings.

Because what a perfect world would it be for Erza if her little protege did have a crush on the child she helped rear so well?

Probably not even close to one, actually, considering Ravan was still an orphan, she was still stuck with the expenses of the two children, and the loves of childhood rarely had any bearing on real life.

But in those fleeting moments? It felt rather perfect. If not reassuring. Ravan was a bit of an, well for lack of a better word, ass. And it bothered Erza a lot the way he seemed unable to connect truly with the other children. Or with anyone. She wanted him to have friends. She wanted him to have normal, childlike emotions. He was so hardened, it seemed, at times. Brutish.

Though she played it so well that at times the boy was unable to see through her, the swordswoman cared rather heavily for the little boy. His brother as well. Time had passed so quickly and yet so slowly. She'd learned much of both boys and, though Ravan wasn't nearly as open as his brother, she felt as if she knew his motives and mannerisms well.

She just wished for them to be happy.

And proficient in their magic.

But the two weren't necessarily exclusive.

"Perhaps," Erza told younger boy then, "I will stick around. For another day."

"Really?" Though Kai loved the idea of getting to spend the night with Marin, he wasn't too upset at the notion of getting to spend some extra time with Erza. "You think you'll go to Locke's birthday party as well?"

"I- What?"

"And do you think you could loan me some jewels? To get him a gift?"

That brought all the joy right out of the woman as, with a glare down at the boy, she shook her head a bit before saying, "I think I have some armor at home you can polish, if you wish for jewels."

Still, Kai beamed up at the woman as he declared, "I sure like you a lot, Erza, you know."

That too caused her to pull a bit of a face, but still, she settled on a soft grin before nodding. "And I you."

But the feeling wasn't mutual for Ravan who headed far away from the market and continued down the maze of roads far away from stupid Erza and stupid Navi and stupid Kai and stupid everyone.

Stupid everyone.

He hated them all. Even his brother. They were all jerks and they were constantly on his back about things and Ravan just wanted to run away. Far away. From them all. And he'd go join another guild. One that wasn't filled with the stupid children of stupid slayers and annoying swordswomen that couldn't even save his parents and he just wouldn't come back!

He'd never come back!

He could do so much better on his own. Without Kai. He'd be a really great mage without someone like Erza breathing down his neck. Without Haven constantly trying to throw him off. Without stupid perfect Navi and stupid idiot Locke that was so great and amazing and nice and...and…

He didn't even know that he was running until, out of breath, he leaned forwards to rest his hands on his knees as he panted heavily. When he lifted his head, of course, where else could he be, but outside of the Fairy Tail gates.

So he sucked in his teeth and ignored the screaming in his lungs as he began to run again. This time to the outskirts of town where he then disappeared into the forest, vowing never to return.

He did, of course.

But only once the hour was late and he was tired, but not too tired to convince himself he actually wanted to spend the night all alone in the forest.

She was waiting up for him though, when he stumbled through the backdoor. Of course. Sitting there with her smug attitude and oh! He just hated her. He hated Erza so much.

He wished he'd killed her when he had the chance.

He wished he'd truly at least once had the chance.

"Ravan," she said simply as she nodded at the chair across the table from her. His chair. He hated having his own chair. "Come take a seat. I will make you hot chocolate."

He glared at her, heavily, and she could tell that he was caked and mud and sweat. He must have been training. As if her perfect day could get even more perfect.

Still sour over...over everything, actually, and not at all having found an ounce of calm inside of him the entire day, he grit his teeth as he told her simply, "It's too hot for hot chocolate."

"Nonsense. You're a child. You love such a thing."

"No, Erza, I don't."

"Well, your brother-"

"I'm not my brother."

This was true. Very true. And, conceding that fact, Erza still was all smiles as she said, "I will treat you to a soda then. There's one in the fridge, I'm sure, that you can have."

"Why are you being nice to me?"

"Am I not always?"

He didn't want to answer that. Not when he was so upset with her.

"Anyways, I wish to speak with you," the woman kept up as, glancing off, she coughed a bit into her hand. Now he was suspicious, Ravan was, and knew that something was up. Still, Erza only nodded at his chair. "Take a seat."

He was too tired to argue.

As soon as he sat down, Erza took to clasping her hands together and giving him a look that he couldn't quite read. Still, he only popped the tab on his soda and waited, knowing something was coming.

Something was always coming.

"So," the woman said slowly as she looked him over. "I gather that something upset you today, when we were in the market. That is the reason that you ran away, yes?"

"No," he grumbled back much faster. "It didn't. Nothing bothers me. At all."

"You know better than to think that I believe this veneer you put up," she critiqued with a shake of her head. "Everything bothers someone at some point."

"What difference does it make to you?" If Ravan was good at anything, it was moving a goalpost. "Why I ran off?"

"Because, Ravan, I am, at heart, your mentor."

"My what?"

"And I wish for you to understand that you can instill trust in me," Erza went on. "I would not break your confidence. Why, when I was your age, after I arrived in Fairy Tail, I would have loved to have someone so accomplished, so talented, so-

"Humble?" he grumbled softly though she was talking too highly of herself to hear him.

"-wise, to take me under their wing. To care for me as I wish to care for you and your needs." Then, giving him a look, Erza said, "So feel free, Ravan, to tell me. Whatever it is. I won't be upset. There's a good chance I'll even be beneficial to you."

"Beneficial?"

Nodding her head, the woman told him, "I know many things, after all. And though I am a woman, of course, my guidance could be very helpful in most aspects of life. Even those that you may not traditionally think to ask me about. So-"

"What are you talking about?"

She didn't want to come right out and say it. For a lot of reasons. But mostly not to embarrass the boy.

The crushes of childhood were a delicate thing, after all. And Erza was excellent at navigating delicate things. Mainly because she refused to acknowledge any shortcomings on the subject.

"Ravan." And she looked him dead in the eyes then. "Surely you can be honest with me. If not me, then who?"

Narrowing his eyes, he was almost completely certain that not only was his 'mentor' completely off base with whatever it was she thought, but also that she was off her rocker in general.

Now annoyed once more (though he wasn't too sure why; maybe because Erza was just being annoying, but also maybe her inability to understand what had made him so upset), he shoved away from the table then, leaving his hardly drank soda behind.

"You will come around," Erza called after him. "And eventually will find that when it comes to confidants, I am the best you will find."

This was not to say that Erza's feelings were not a bit crushed by his refusal to, in her mind, open up to her about his incoming feelings that he'd yet to experience, she was sure, before. But no matter. She knew that Ravan was a difficult child. She would get him to eventually tell her.

It was as she sat there though, lamenting her failure and considering other alternatives to getting him to divulge to her all his secrets, that she was, once more, joined at the table.

"Kai?" she complained with a bit of a frown. "What are you doing up?"

He only sat there in his pajamas though, looking tired, as he said, "I got up to get some water, but you and Ravan were talkin', so I waited. 'cause I have manners and all."

"Yes," the woman replied slowly as she eyed him. "And all."

"But I did listen, 'cause how could I not?"

"How could you not?" And Erza did this at times, repeat the boy. It was in futile attempts to get him to hear his own words back and, hopefully, recognize their idiocy, but so far, this had failed to land with the little boy.

"And I wanted to know if you were kind like my mentor too?"

"Did you want to know that?"

"Yes. I did."

"I suppose it depends on what you define a mentor as," she said slowly, eyeing him. "And also why it is that you wish to know this."

Grinning widely, he said, "Simple. I wanna know if you can talk me through somethin'."

This did peak Erza's interest a bit and, though skeptical, she did ask, "What is that, Kai?"

"Well, you know how I have a really neat jacket that someone who really likes me loads bought for me and I said I'd take care of it if they did and I was real grateful and everything, but then when I got home today, the zipper was stickin' still and I panicked a bit and ripped it clean off and I don't know how to tell that person that not only am I sorry, but it's gonna rain again, probably, soon, and I'd like a new jacket, please, Erza. Mentor. Whichever."

When she looked deeply into Kai's eyes, it was with a different form of hardness and exhaustion.

"Go," she told him simply, "to bed. Now."

"But-"

"Get your water and go. Before I take you by hand there." Before he could say otherwise, she was sure to add, "And you will not like it if I do."

A long sigh accompanied his shoving up from the table, but after getting a drink, he did diligently head off to bed and, for the next few hours, she heard little of the boys. It was around the time that she got up to train, however, that she heard the heavier footsteps of Ravan as he left the house and, with a sigh, she decided not to follow him.

Perhaps, she should change her mode of attack.

Unfortunately for Navi, however, this new mode had less to do with the child under Erza's dominion and more to do with her.

The day of Locke's birthday was upon them and Navi arrived early to help Ms. Mirajane with setting up the downstairs game room for it. The woman told her that she'd give her a few jewels, for the help, and Navi had been set back a bit by the birthday gift buying, so she couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Her mother had gone with her down to the job, leaving her brothers, father, and Happy at home where they hopefully all would be when Lucy returned from her job. She was yawning some, over at the request board, while Navi only rushed right over to Mirajane to question what it was she wanted done first.

It was while she was seated at one of the table, mixing the big bowl of ingredients for his cake, that Navi was joined by Erza. The second the woman walked into the hall, she'd immediately zeroed in on the poor little girl.

"Navi. It is good to see you up and so active this early in the morning," the swordswoman greeted as she sat across from the child. "An admirable trait for sure."

"Hi, Erza," Navi sighed as she struggled a bit as the ingredients got rather difficult to stir, sticking together rather well and forcing her to use her full strength with that wooden spoon. "I'm helping for Locke's birthday."

"Ah, Locke, yes. He is a very well-mannered child as well. For the most part, of course." Erza continued to stare right at Navi as she questioned the girl. "You two are quite close, are you not?"

"Well, kind of. I guess. He and Haven are closer, probably."

"So is the way of life. We naturally find ourselves drawn more to one person than all others. Happy prefers Natsu above all others, your mother is very close to the Master's wife, you yourself are drawn to… Who is your best friend? Navi? I do not believe I am aware of one."

It was a weird question, coming from Erza, but Navi was far too focused on the stirring of that cake mix to honestly consider just why the swordswoman would be interested in such information.

"I dunno," she answered truthfully then. "I guess Haven."

"You said that Haven and Locke are already very close to one another. Yes?"

"I guess."

"Then the only other one of your little friend group would be-"

"Marin's alright, I guess, but-"

"Ravan," Erza finished because clearly the pink haired little girl was just not going to follow her so easily into delusion. "You and Ravan would both be the odd ones out. But not too odd, I suppose, considering an even number still exists."

Navi felt like the woman was talking in circles and was a bit lost by the whole thing, so she stopped stirring then to stare over at the woman. With a frown, she asked, "You think that Ravan and I are best friends?"

"It would only be natural, after all. Locke and Haven are so close, Kai and Marin, and you and-"

"I don't… Erza..."

"Ravan is a bit rough around the edges, of course, but I am certain if he just had one person he felt comfortable around, then certainly he would open up more. In general. Not to mention, he is becoming quite adept at his sword training-"

"Erza, I don't like Ravan."

"It's a silly word, yes, that scares children, sometimes, but-"

"No, I mean, I don't like him at all." The sort of like that Erza apparently had been implying would have made Navi barf to even consider. "He's kind of mean."

"He is only strong willed."

"And he's a bully. He picks on everybody."

"As does Haven."

"But we all like Haven."

Yes. Erza had long pondered the implications of that as well. Haven and her behaviors were a conundrum for certain. A problem for another day, however.

"Well, if you would only learn to like Ravan-"

"But I don't want to though. Why would I?"

As Navi frowned up at the woman though, Mirajane happened to pass by and come to collect the bowl. That was the little girl's cue to rush off, as to earn every cent of those jewels. Still, she did bow her head to the swordswoman before rushing off.

It was all Erza's fault, of course (though she struggled with admitting this). Her own oversight that had caused the whole thing. Never once did it occur to her that Navi might not  _like_  Ravan. Perhaps needed her mind opened to the idea of it, fine, but that she did not even consider him a friend…

Erza was certain the young boy would be crushed. Absolutely crushed. His first childhood love was ill-fated and would no doubt set his already downcast view of the world even lower. It wasn't Navi's fault, of course, for not returning whatever sort of affection he had for her, but Erza really wished things had turned out different.

Ah. Well, it was part of childhood, yes? The realization that your hopes and desires were not the same as others. It was best to learn it young rather than be deluded into believing that what you wanted was either exactly what others did or, worse yet, not caring how they felt.

Mostly though, Erza felt poorly for herself. In the single day she'd considering the possibility of the two even just being friendly, she'd grown extremely excited by the concept. Young love was silly and stupid, but the idea that Ravan could even just have a friend, a real friend, was exciting. He was so alone so often.

Navi though put the weird situation right out of her mind. Erza was always kind of off and, considering she was the one that took care of Ravan, it made sense to her that she'd be asking equally as off stuff about the boy. The day was about Locke's birthday and that's all she wanted to focus on.

Haven and Marin showed up at the hall eventually, of course, with their father. He was all grouchy about the celebratory mood his wife had and, upon arrival, only growled that he would be in his office for the day and didn't want to be bothered.

"Who wants you at a party anyways, Laxus?" Haven griped at him and, well, was she wrong?

Never, if you asked her.

At least not in this case, if you asked anyone else.

The party was around noon and all the kids were more than pumped up for it. Mirajane, knowing how annoyed Laxus was by the whole thing, made them all go down to the game room where she'd set up a table with all his presents sat atop. Gajeel didn't go down there with him, but snort a bit and shove at the boy some.

"A man has duties, I guess," he remarked. "You probably feel too old for this, huh, Locke? Like you don't need it? It's stupid. But you gotta do your duty. All your stupid little girlfriends are waiting for you, I guess."

"You could let him enjoy things sometimes, Gaj," Levy retorted with a frown. "Without making us all thing about your friendless childhood."

"I didn't need friends!"

"Don't worry, Locke," Lily assured him with a grin. "Having parties like this mean you won't turn out like Gajeel when you grow up."

Downstairs, the girls (plus Kai) were very excited. Well, Marin and Navi were, Kai was waiting for cake, and Haven just didn't seem as put off by the whole thing as she usually did.

Ms. Mirajane though was by far the most excited. She always was. Birthdays really made her happy. They reminded her of that little shack she lived in with her brother and sister, where their parents couldn't afford much less than what they needed, but always made each of their birthdays (for the short time they lived for them) so special. Just by being around.

"Open mine first," Marin requested, if not a bit softly, and Locke was feeling good that day so he did so, pulling the tiny package from the pile. "I hope you like it."

Well, the concept was cool. Like though was a strong word. Still, Locke told her he'd put it on his housekey, maybe.

"Marin and me both got one too," Kai told him. "So if you do that, it'll be like we're all matching!"

"Yeah!" Marin too was pumped up by the thought. "It will be."

Which meant that Locke definitely wasn't doing that.

"Get mine next," Kai requested. "I picked it out this mornin'! Just for you, Locke."

"It is his birthday, after all," Navi muttered to Haven who only rolled her eyes.

"Oh, wow, Kai," Locke remarked with very little enthusiasm actually in his voice. "You bought me a bookmark."

"You read," the boy insisted. "A lot. You need a bookmark. And look, it glows in the dark! Cup your hand around it!"

"That's actually really thoughtful," Levy remarked as she stood behind Locke, overseeing the interactions with Mirajane. "Kai."

It was true. More thought than anyone actually believed he'd ever put into something. Though the gift was lackluster, even Locke was kind of impressed with that.

"I'm a deep thinker," Kai said simply, but even Marin seemed to not really believe that.

He opened a gift from his mother before he got around to Haven's gift. When he saw it, he blinked some, as if surpised by it before frowing and looking up at her.

"Don't you know what it is?" she griped at him as he only shook his head slightly.

"Well, yeah, but why'd ya-"

"You like puzzles, don't you?" Haven kept up as the pair sat across from one another at the table, her already glaring. "It's like a puzzle. It's a model of the capital's castle. You put it together, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!"

"You sure seem like one!"

"Okay, okay." Mirajane was moving then to hand Locke the last gift. "Let's move on, huh?"

"And Locke, you say thank you when you get something," Levy reminded gently as she took the box that Haven's gift came in and went to set it down with the others. "Don't be ungrateful."

Both were angry with one another again (they rarely went an extended period without it) and Locke only made a face at the girl while she crossed her arms and glared off.

But he had Navi's gift then to be concerned with and it, by far, went over the best out of all the gifts.

"Wow!" Locke had the sweetest grin, his mother always told him, when he showed his teeth and he had that going then as he peeled off the wrapping paper to reveal a thick, old looking spell book. Which, on it's own, wasn't anything particularly interesting, but the specific kind it was really impressed him. "It's only about medicine?"

"Yeah!" Navi perked up as well, seeing her friend so excited. "I don't even think we have it here, in our library at the guild. I saw it and thought you needed it."

"It's probably filled with stuff," Locke gushed as he sat it down on the table then to begin flicking through it. "I can't wait to..." Then he stopped and looked up at his mother with a stricken face and said, "You won't tell Dad, will you?"

Gajeel hated his son's love for that sort of magic. He saw 'medic work' as nothing more than girly shit you let the your ten year old daughter do so that she could be a mage too! Bleh. Fucking hell, he'd die before his son became a damn medic.

Of course, considering everyone was slated to die eventually, this wasn't too far off from how it'd all end up…

"Don't even worry about that right now, huh?" Levy remarked simply as he only nodded. "Maybe it's time for-"

"Cake?" Kai was quick to jump up. "I'll help you get it, Mrs. Master."

As he went off with the barmaid, who only giggled, to go get it, Locke looked over his book and spoke with Navi on it as Haven only glared off. Marin though, in her fear of her sister, knew better than to say exactly what she was thinking.

She'd told Haven to get him a book.

And did she listen?

Marin would definitely be telling Aunt Ever all about this next time they saw one another.

Haven refused to sing Locke Happy Birthday with the others and, when over cake he was invited by Kai to go fishing for his big day (the younger boy would use any excuse to grab a pole and sit by the river) and Locke declined because he was going out on this cool, exciting, fun adventure with his father all alone, Haven tossed her plate down and got up and stomped off. The other kids were a bit shocked by it, but Locke was mostly just annoyed.

She always had to make everything about her.

"Boy," Kai remarked with a frown after the older girl. "If I'dda known she wanted to be invited, I'dda definitely asked. Course, I don't think we'dda liked fishin' together too much."

Navi stared hard at Kai for that remark and, as she typically found herself doing with the boy, had to truly question whether he was as big an idiot as he made himself sound or if he was pulling the biggest prank on them all.

Mirajane let Haven go as the girl had already more than added her own dramatics to the day and knew better than to reward her for that. Plus, Mira knew Laxus would more than placate Haven later in the day, with teasing jabs and ribs.

It was how the two connected.

Haven stormed out of the hall entirely though, but didn't leave the guild grounds (you had to establish just enough space to show your anger, but leave enough so that someone coming after you could find you; but no one was coming after her). That was how she ran into him, anyways. Ravan. He was being his typical moody self behind the building.

"What are you doing back here?" she asked with a frown at the sight of him back there, one of his weapons drawn, seemingly practicing some sword drills.

Ravan, who found that he liked it back there, behind the guildhall, where he was kind of connected to the others, but still definitely not because yuck, he hated all of the, especially then, only frowned at the other child.

"What are you doing?" he retorted, lowering his sword slightly. "Shouldn't you be with Locke? Or did he already kick you out of his party?"

"He can't kick me out of anything," Haven barked right back. "I chose to leave."

"Well, leave here too then." Ravan raised his weapon again. "I don't need your ugly mug bothering me while I'm training."

"I can stand wherever I want!" Haven was not one to be pushed around. Figuratively or literally. She was the one to always do the pushing. "You can't tell me what to do."

For a long, tense few seconds there, the two children had a glaring match going on, but at about the same moment, they both looked off. They were too upset about other things, it seemed, to be able to pretend to have any for one another right then.

"Why aren't you at the party then?" Haven finally asked after a few moments of them just not looking at one another. "Ravan?"

"Why would I go? To Locke's birthday party? No one threw me a party when it was my birthday."

Haven might not have much anger left over, but the glare was commonplace, it seemed, as she only told him, "No one knows when your birthday even is, stupid."

"So? You know that I've been here for a long time. Over a year. Do you think that I just don't have a birthday?"

Honestly, Haven had never considered it. Even once. She really didn't think that deeply about anyone other than herself. The idea that Ravan did or didn't get a birthday party since she'd known him, perhaps even deserving of two by that point, didn't mean much to her. At all.

It was only just occurring to her that she didn't even know exactly how old he was…

"And why would I be there anyways?" he asked. "When you're not even there? You're his girlfriend."

"Shuddup."

"You shuddup."

"It's stupid Navi anyways!" Haven huffed some then, looking off again. "I could have gotten him that cool book too. It's not even that cool. And he likes puzzles!"

Ravan's desire to rub whatever pain Haven was feeling in was drowned out by that name.

"I hate Navi."

It just slipped out. He didn't even really mean it, probably. But he said it.

And, across from him, Haven didn't mean it either as it slipped from her mouth as well.

"I hate her too."

They'd never reached that before, the two of them. An agreement.

It was more than a bit horrifying to consider.

The thing that always separated them was their anger and sharp tongues. They lashed out at those around them for very different reasons, but still the same methods. The idea of them both lashing out at the same subject was a powerful one and probably the sole reason why they were able to complete jobs together.

If there was ever a chance of the two of them seeing eye to eye more often, well, that might actually spell some amount of trouble for the guild. The one thing saving that, however, was the fact that, for one, neither truly hated Navi anyways. Rather, they were both experiencing some form of jealousy that was redirecting their anger at different people towards poor, innocent Navi who'd done little more in either situation than just be a casual bystander.

Of course, when you were as far gone in your feelings as Haven and Ravan were by that point, little mattered other than what you personally believed. And in that moment, they personally believed they each hated stupid Navi.

Which they didn't and wouldn't in less than an hour for both, but in that moment, the emotion felt very real.

It was while the unlikely pair shared this singular moment though that they were joined. Haven, apparently, did have someone who was coming after her. Locke found them, back behind the building, holding Haven's hardly touched plate of cake in one hand. He glared at the sight of Ravan, but only went to stand by his friend.

"Why do you always have to be such a brat, Haven?" was Locke's form of a greeting it seemed as he only shoved the plate off on the blonde haired child. "I don't make problems on your birthday. Can't you ever just be normal?"

She snatched the plate too, with a glare (because, hey, it was still cake), before replying, "I didn't ask you to come find me."

"I don't care what you ask me to do."

"Then-"

"I'm going with my dad now," he told her simply. "On my birthday job."

"So? Why should I care?"

"You don't have to, I guess, but I don't get why you're mad at me."

He rarely did. Haven was very confusing to Locke. She seemed to have an equal disdain for things that weren't any good for her as she did for things that were. Anything could set her off at any moment. Even things that hadn't previously. Haven was a walk endorsement to happiness being fleeting.

Haven, however, didn't understand how he could say that. That he didn't know why she was so angry with him. It felt so obvious to her, all of her different feelings and reactions, that the idea that others might not be able to understand them was crazy to her. It was plain as day that he was rubbing it in her face that he had a father who could still go on cool jobs and would take him on one, when she did not. Not to mention the original slight, which was seemingly not immediately loving and understanding what her gift was while praising stupid Navi for just buying him a dumb book.

That he could have somehow missed realizing that these were problems and lead to her being upset was unacceptable. It made her even angrier, honestly.

"I'm mad because you're a stupid idiot, Locke, who thinks he's so great because his dad's a mage. Your dad's not even S-Class! And neither is your mom! Your parents suck!"

Locke glared then and about shoved her for that. Face dark, he said, "At least my parents like me."

"I don't like mine, so I don't care what they like!"

"Great then, Haven! Because they don't like you."

Ravan, who'd only stood there for a few moments, listening to the two argue, had had enough. He came to his spot back behind the guild hall to be alone. Not to be bothered by Haven and Locke. He'd accepted the former, since they were sharing a sentiment, but the pair of them was something he never wanted to be around.

"Could you two do this somewhere else?" he asked before, with a dark glint in his eye, he raised his sword once more, this time towards Locke. "Why are you over here anyways? Don't make me cut you up before your dumb trip."

Locke ignored him though as he continued to glare at Haven. To her, he said, "I didn't do anything to you, Haven. I never do. And you always get upset. You always-"

"I bought you that real nice model thing and you acted like a jerk about it."

"How, Haven? Huh? Because I didn't know what it was? I'm going to build it."

"After you read your stupid book," she said with a huff and, finally, he had some idea what he'd done wrong. "That's a dumb magic anyways."

"I can like two things, Haven." Locke didn't sound so annoyed then as he only frowned at her. "I never said I didn't like your model. I just didn't know what it was at first. That's all."

She only looked off though, still angry, apparently, while Locke sighed and kicked some at the ground. If happiness was fleeting for her, anger was for him.

"If you really wanna go with me and my dad," Locke sighed finally. "Then I guess-"

"I don't want to go with you or your stupid dad, Locke."

His glare returned, for a moment, before he glanced at Ravan, who still looked ready to skewer him. With a shake of his head, he turned off to go then. Gajeel would be calling for him soon enough.

After he left, Haven looked down at her cake before at Ravan. Frowning at him, she only moved to start picking at the dessert with her typical scowl.

"I hate Locke too," she added softly and, with a nod of his own head, Ravan found it rather easy to agree.

When Ravan went home that night, it was to find Erza sitting up, waiting on him again in the kitchen. He wasn't really wanting to deal with her, but she insisted he take a seat.

"I," she began as he mostly glared at a spot on the wall behind her, "have taken notice of your attitude since the market incident."

He didn't glance at her as he asked, "You have?"

"I have." Erza even nodded. "It has to do with Navi, does it not?"

That got his attention and, staring right at her, he felt his stomach flip a bit because he'd never seen them getting to that point. He wasn't even sure what that point was. His feelings over the matter still confused him and though he knew the taste of jealousy, the concept of why he'd want Erza's attention anyways was beyond him. He didn't get why he cared so much what the swordswoman though of him, much less Navi. He just knew that, for some reason, he did care. And what she thought, honestly, hurt his feelings.

"In my infinite wisdom," the woman was going on, "I decided the best course of action would be to confront the problem head on. Go to the source. Navi herself."

He paled some. "You what?"

"Do not fear," she tried to console him. "I did this with the delicacy that should be involved in such a matter. Navi didn't even know what I was speaking of, it seemed. However, I did get to the bottom of the problem and it pains me to say, Ravan, that perhaps you should set your sights on another."

Now she'd completely thrown him.

"Another what, Erza?"

"Well, that's a question only you yourself can answer, isn't it, Ravan?"

He blinked some, glare failing as he tried very hard to understand what she was saying before, in confusion, he asked, "What did you talk to Navi about?"

"About your little crush on her, Ravan."

"You what?"

"Do not fret. She is none the wiser. However, you are wiser, now, thanks to my interference and it has saved you from-"

"I don't...like Navi, Erza."

"Do not play coy with me. It is as I told you last night," she insisted. "I am your mentor. Your-"

"You're an idiot."

Her face dropped as she frowned at him, "Ravan-"

"I don't like Navi! At all! We're not even friends! I don't like anyone! That's stupid. Why would you even think that?"

"W-Well, you ran away, at the market, because you got flustered from seeing her, yes?'

"No!"

"Then I do not understand, Ravan," Erza told him with a shake of her head. "If it is not young love that caused you to flee, why-"

"It's because you suck! You do! You sit there and talk about how great Navi is and act like me and Kai don't do anything! We do do things! We try real hard at things. But you don't care because you think Navi's so perfect, but she's not! I wouldn't wanna be like her anyways, even if she was. I don't want to be her. I'm me. And if you don't like that, fine! I'll just go somewhere else. To another guild. Where they do want me."

It was the culmination of a lot of things that forced that out of him and Ravan hated every second of it. It tasted awful. Much worse than jealousy. He felt like he'd just retched his entire insides up.

"Oh, Ravan."

And the look Erza gave him made it that much worse.

Crossing his arms tightly over his chest, he looked away, but could still feel her heavy eyes.

"I didn't… Perhaps sometimes I...I do not think when I talk," Erza admitted slowly. "I struggle at times to realize just how...childlike you are. And of course I appreciate the things that you do."

"No, you don't."

"Ravan-"

"All you ever do is talk about how horrible I am."

"I do not."

"You do so."

"Ravan, to pretend as if you were the perfect house mate would be a lie," Erza said to which he only huffed some more. "But I like having you here. There are ways in which you could improve, but there are ways in which I could improve. In which Navi could as well. No one is perfect. If I have made you feel poorly for not being so, then I apologize. There is a reason I've invited you to stay in my home and allowed you to live here. Not Navi. You."

Ravan wouldn't look at her. Only grumbled out, "Can I go now?"

Sighing, Erza allowed this and, hopping up, he rushed off to bed. Kai was snoozing already and Ravan just left him be as he clambered up to the top bunk of their beds and tugged the blankets over his head.

He felt different now, than he had the past two days, but he wasn't sure why exactly. All the anger and self-consciousness that had plagued him had fled for the time being and he just felt normal again.

Then, just as he was drifting off, he remembered that Erza had apparently taken it upon herself to try and talk to a girl for him and his face heated up and oh, wow, embarrassment was a new one for him,.

He'd have to get Erza back for this slight.

It was still there in the morning and Ravan decided he couldn't face the hall for a few days. Just the thought of possibly seeing Navi, knowing what Erza had done, made him feel queasy. So he decided to mope around the house and not do much at all in retaliation.

And plus he was just feeling a bit lazy.

When he arrived back the next week, Locke had returned from his birthday job with his father and all the kids seemed to have gathered at the hall. Kai and Marin were spending the day at the pool, playing with some real water guns that her Uncle Bickslow had got for them after seeing their puny key chain ones while the older kids sat at a table just the three of them, putting together that model that Haven had bought Locke for his brithday.

It was...going about as well as expected.

"Haven, you can't just jam pieces in."

"That's not what I'm doing, Locke."

"It is what you're doing and you're going to break the pieces and then-"

"Why don't you just shut up? Huh? The instructions say-"

"You didn't read the instructions, Haven! Whenever Navi or I try to read them to you-"

"Instructions are for people who don't know what they're doing, Locke."

"Yeah. You, Haven."

"Can't we do something else?" Navi finally asked. "Anything else?"

"No," both Locke and Haven shut her down in unison and, well, at least they agreed about something.

Ravan started to walk over to them, but he was hardly even over there when Haven's eyes found them. Only, whatever agreement they'd had on Locke's birthday was gone and she only glared.

"Go away, Ravan," she ordered as Locke glared at him as well. Navi mostly just laid there with her head down, wishing she'd stuck around her house instead of being drawn into model building. It was bad enough on it's own, the concept even sounded boring, but add in Haven and Locke's bickering and, well, Navi would rather watch paint dry. "We don't need you over here screwing things up."

Ravan felt his face heat up then, but it was more because Navi looked right at him and gross, what if now she thought that...that…

Why did Erza have to always screw up his life?

"I don't want to play with you idiots anyways," he growled at them before taking a sharp turn. "I'm going on a job."

"A job?" Suddenly, Navi's head picked right up. "Hey, do you think that you would wanna go together? Ravan? Or-"

"No!" And he had to rush then, to get away from her. Before she thought, like, he liked her or something. Gross. If anything, Erza now made it to where Ravan did have to consider Navi. Consider that she might have been duped into thinking something that definitely wasn't at all in any way true. Ugh. He rushed over to the board even faster. "You can't!"

"Why would you wanna go on a job with him anyways?" Haven tsked as Navi only laid her head back down with a sigh. "When you can stay here and- Oops."

"Haven, you broke part of it!"

"It was already broken, Locke. That's how come the parts wouldn't fit together."

"They broke because they weren't supposed to fit together!"

"I bought it, Locke. I should know."

"Do you usually break things that you buy for other people?"

Well...she didn't usually buy things for other people…

It was becoming increasingly clear to Haven, however, that she had been wrong and it had been her that had caused the toy to break and she needed something else to distract the others with then, rather than harp on the fact that she'd possibly ruined the whole model.

Glancing around the hall, her eyes fell to where Ravan was considering jobs before jumping up and rushing off.

"Come on!" she told Locke, who was pretty upset with her then (he really did wanna build his model), and Navi, who just wanted to do something other than what they were doing. "Let's go on a job with Ravan."

"What? No!" At the sound of her approach, Ravan only glared. "I don't want you to-"

"Consider it your birthday present," Haven told him simply. "Isn't that what you wanted? The other day? Here. Happy birthday."

"It's not my birthday!"

"At least she can't break this," Locke grumbled as he came over to them.

"When is you birthday, Ravan?" Navi asked though more out of courtesy. She, like most others, had never considered him as having one of those and was a bit surprised. "It's not really soon, is it? If you tell Ms. Mira, then-"

"Stop talking to me, Navi," he growled at her which surprised them all. He was rare to speak to her, honestly, but to be flat out rude to her was definitely odd. "If you idiots are coming, then just all shut up!"

"You shut up!" Haven ordered. "We can do whatever we-"

"It's my birthday present, right? Then just shut up!"

That was fine with Locke who was mostly just upset about his poor model and really wasn't in the mood to hear Haven's whining. Navi was confused by the hostility, but was used to that sort of abuse from the likes of Haven and knew better to question it.

The girl in question though just glared heavily at Ravan for a long time before reaching up and snatching a job down.

"Fine," she hissed softly at him. "But I pick the job."

That was alright with the other kids. Anything to stop the fighting.

For the moment, of course. They'd fight on the way to the job, during the job, and on the way back from the job, but for a moment, all four of them were content in their shaky pact.


End file.
